The energy efficiency of chillers in a trigeneration plant

The cooling requirements of buildings can be met using a variety of cooling systems. Electrically driven compressor chillers are the most popular, however, the last decade has seen a rapid increase in the number of absorption chillers, which can use many different energy sources including exergy-poor sources. As an alternative solution for satisfying the cooling demands of buildings and improving the cogeneration efficiency, steam and hot-water driven absorption chillers can be included in trigeneration plant. In this paper we look at the efficiency of a number of different chillers. A method for the exergetic efficiency determination of different kinds of chillers is described and a comparison of the chillers' exergetic efficiency in a trigeneration system including the whole cooling loop is shown.